Security in airports, train stations, ports, mail sorting facilities, office buildings and other public or private venues is becoming increasingly important in particular in light of recent violent events.
Typically, security-screening systems at airports make use of devices generating penetrating radiation, such as x-ray devices, to scan individual pieces of luggage to generate an image conveying the contents of the luggage. The image is displayed on a screen and is examined by a human operator whose task it is to identify, on the basis of the image, potentially threatening objects located in the luggage.
A deficiency with current systems is that they are entirely reliant on the human operator to identify potentially threatening objects. However, the performance of the human operator greatly varies according to such factors as poor training and fatigue. As such, the process of detection and identification of threatening objects is highly susceptible to human error.
Another deficiency with current systems is that the labour costs associated with such systems are significant since human operators must view the images.
Yet another deficiency is that the images displayed on the x-ray machines provide little, if any, guidance as to what is being observed. It will be appreciated that failure to identify a threatening object, such as a weapon for example, may have serious consequences, such as property damage, injuries and human deaths.
Consequently, there is a need in the industry for providing a device for facilitating visual identification of a prohibited object in an image during security screening that alleviates at least in part the deficiencies of the prior art.